Beyond Blue

Paris Hilton: Depression Isn’t a Rich Disease

If I could avoid it–and exit the grocery store without accidentally reading tabloid headlines–I wouldn’t follow the details of Paris Hilton’s life. And even if I was one of those people truly fascinated by her, like my sister is, I would deny it–like Jerry Seinfeld did about watching “Melrose Place” until the female cop he was dating made him take a lie detector test.
If you check out the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com, you’ll get breaking news on the latest Hilton out-of-jail/ordered-to-court-again/possible-mental-breakdown development.
The only part that interests me is the public’s take on the “head stuff” (as opposed to the rumor that Hilton had been released because she’d come down with a nasty rash). And my first reaction is similar to how I felt when the Virginia Tech story turned into a national debate about mental illness: yuck.
Because our public discussions of mental illness, once again, aren’t exactly the nuanced and informative conversations that can help persons who are truly struggling from mood disorders and anxiety issues.
If I didn’t publish my diary of depression every day online, this story would make me want to bury any file I had with a psychiatrist way, way back in my filing cabinet. And God help the person just coming to terms with his own biochemical and neurological impediment (including altered patterns of brain activity and possible structural damage to the brain) because he will most likely go underground for another five years, when we finally get a story about someone not so rich and pretty and popular/unpopular going crazy.
I pray for Paris if she is hurting—I wouldn’t wish mental anguish on anyone–but I also pray that her legacy doesn’t further establish depression as a rich, white, privileged disease. Because it’s so not.

Being rich isnt a ticket to influance the law. She commited a violation of her parole and she deserves to serve her sentence.

Iris Alantiel

More accurately, I would say that depression isn’t exclusively a rich, white, privileged disease. It doesn’t discriminate. I’d hate to see the assumption made that some people are depressed, but rich, white, privileged people are just whiners who don’t have anything to be depressed about.

Susan Dudley

TO MRS. PARIS HILTON I HOPE YOU FIND YOUR SELF I HOPE GOD LOOKS OUT FOR YOU YOU HAVE GOT TO WATCH A MOVIE CALLED, MAID TO ORDER. IT WILL MAKE YOU SEE. WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE THAT ABUSE MONEY WITH DRUGS AND DRINKING CAN DO TO YOU. I HOPE YOU DON’T LOOSE EVERYTHING BUT SOME TIMES YOU HAVE TO IN ORDER FOR YOU TO GET BETTER YOU NEED TO LOOK AT YOUR SELF AND REALIZE WHAT YOU WAN’T TO BE KNOWN AS THE OLD YOU OR THE PEOPLES RESPECT FOR YOU. GOD WILL HELP IF YOU WILL JUST LISTEN AND LET HIM INTO YOUR HEART. I HOPE YOU SEE THIS MOVIE IT’S A REAL EYE OPENER. SINCERLEY, HAVE FAITH IN YOUR SELF. SIGN CONCERNED

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